‘Crash TV,’ New Game-Show Genre, Set to Go ‘Bang’

Like the creators of today’s “trash TV” programs, the producers of a new crop of high-action game shows prefer to call their product “reality television.”

But, like it or not, the press has already dubbed them “crash TV”--and the new “crash” genre debuts with a bang Sunday at 5 p.m. on KTLA Channel 5 with “The Interceptor,” the first of three unconventional, high-impact entries into the game-show arena that are expected to appear next season.

“The Interceptor,” produced by Four Point Productions and distributed by Fries Entertainment, will premiere as a one-hour special on about 100 TV stations nationwide. The producers hope that if the pilot proves popular, stations will want to order “Interceptor” as a weekly series.

Two other crash games, “RollerGames” from Qintex Entertainment and “The Gladiators” from Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment, are expected to premiere by next fall.

Instead of buying a vowel, picking a category, choosing Bachelor No. 2 or dressing up like a tomato to select Door No. 3, “crash TV” takes its players outside the safety of a studio set. In “RollerGames,” skilled contestants on roller skates will do battle on a huge figure-eight track featuring a 14-foot “wall of death” and a live alligator pit. “The Gladiators” will throw ordinary weaklings into the fray with metal-clad warriors in costume.

“The Interceptor,” hosted by Erik Estrada, is probably the tamest of the trio. This game pairs contestants with celebrity guests, each carrying a large backpack containing information about possible prize winnings. Their quest: to find the keys to the backpacks while following a harrowing five-mile course, pursued by the Interceptor.

In the pilot, the Interceptor is a stunt man dressed in black, with a Darth Vader-esque mask and voice, who amuses himself by hunting down the players via motorcycle, helicopter and on foot.

His personality, voice and costume may change in subsequent games, said producer Ron Ziskin: “One week, he could be RoboCop--the next, GI Joe, or the Lone Ranger.”

Contestants must make it to the end of the course without being “killed” by the Interceptor’s gun. Once a contestant gets hit, the key will no longer unlock the backpack; the player goes home with a consolation prize.

Although Ziskin calls “Interceptor” reality television, the half-hour game is edited down from about two hours of film, shot by eight different camera crews, plus a camera placed in the Interceptor’s helmet. The producers also added a throbbing music sound track to enhance the suspense, just as in a television drama. Ziskin argues that the editing does not affect the reality or fairness of the competition: “It’s still the same game,” he said.

Ziskin believes “Interceptor” and the other crash TV games represent a response to the audience’s restlessness with traditional TV formats.

“What’s more, the programmers themselves are kind of bored with today’s programming. They’re looking for new ways to create interesting television,” he said. “It’s an important program in that it is a new form, the first of this reality group to hit the air, fully executed. It’ll be very interesting to see how it performs.”